Adding to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s anxiety in election-bound Gujarat, anti-government protests have erupted in the Adivasi belt over the alleged misuse of reservation benefits meant for Scheduled Tribes.

The ruling party has been trying hard to win over Adivasis ahead of next month’s Assembly election to make up for the expected erosion of support among Patidars, a community who have traditionally been the party’s core constituency. But for the better part of the last two years, the Patidars have been agitating against the BJP government to demand reservations in education and employment.

The Adivasi protests are related to the large number of Scheduled Tribe certificates allegedly distributed by the state government over the last decade to members of Rabri, Bharwad and Charan communities whose forefathers lived in the Gir forest and had been granted Scheduled Tribe status in 1956, said Pradip Garashiya, president of Samast Adivasi Samaj, who is at the forefront of the agitation.

However, he contended that the policy grants reservations only to members of the Gir communities still living in the forest and not to Rabris, Bharwads or Charanas who have moved out. These communities, he said, were not Adivasis but nomadic pastoralists.

“There was nothing wrong with the 1956 order,” Garashiya said. “It became problematic only when Gujarat government issued notifications – first in 2007 and then in January 2017 – allowing descendants of the forest-dwellers anywhere to obtain ST certificates, thereby threatening to dilute reservation benefits meant for tribals.”

The notifications did not attract much attention until about three months ago, when the state recruited 68 deputy superintendents of police and deputy collectors to posts reserved for the Scheduled Tribes. It turned out that 35 of them belonged to Rabri, Bharwad and Charan communities.

As soon as the news spread, the Adivasis launched a series of protests, forcing the government on October 11 to cancel both notifications, of 2007 and 2017.

But the protests have continued, with the Adivasis demanding that Scheduled Tribe certificates given to the descendants of Gir communities who no longer live in the forest be invalidated.

Now, 116-odd Scheduled Caste groups have jointly called a state-level Adivasi convention on November 18 to decide the “future course of action” as well as their “political approach” to the upcoming election.

“Besides representatives of 116 tribal organisations, the convention at Vyra [in Tapi district] will be attended by presidents of all 29 tribal sub-castes in Gujarat as well as office-bearers of district-level tribal bodies,” said Garashiya.

Shifting ground

The growing Adivasi unrest bodes ill for the BJP. The party’s MP from Bharuch, Mansukh Vasava, suggested as much. “It is true that the benefits of reservation for tribals are being misused by others,” the former minister of state for tribal affairs said. “Elected representatives of both the Congress and the BJP are responsible for this mess because the misuse is happening since 1956. If something is not done quickly, the agitation may engulf the entire tribal belt.”

The ruling party has been trying to cobble together a new electoral coalition ever since the Patidars took to the streets in July 2015, to demand reservations. Adivasis, who form nearly 15% of Gujarat’s population and have the decisive vote in 27 reserved constituencies, are central to the BJP’s social arithmetic.

In the last Assembly election, 16 of these 27 seats went to the Congress and 10 to the BJP. The other elected the Janata Dal (United)’s Chhotubhai Vasava. This was a near repeat of 2007, when the Congress won 16 of the 26 seats reserved then, BJP nine and the Janata Dal (United) one.

This election, the BJP is confident of taking a much bigger chunk of the reserved seats. Its confidence stems mainly from the work that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the party’s parent organisation, and its so-called cultural affiliates have done in the tribal belt since RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat addressed a meeting of swayamsevaks and pracharaks from the region at Vansda in Navsari district last December.

Meanwhile, sensing an opportunity to corner the ruling party, the Congress has thrown its weight behind the “traditional Scheduled Tribes”. “The unrestrained distribution of ST certificates by the BJP government over the past few years is at the root of this problem,” the party’s Gujarat Working President Tushar Choudhary claimed. “If this is not corrected, these cardholders will end up diluting the benefits that the genuine tribals should get.”

Adopting three simple habits can help maximise the benefits of existing sanitation infrastructure.

India’s sanitation problem is well documented – the country was recently declared as having the highest number of people living without basic sanitation facilities. Sanitation encompasses all conditions relating to public health - especially sewage disposal and access to clean drinking water. Due to associated losses in productivity caused by sickness, increased healthcare costs and increased mortality, India recorded a loss of 5.2% of its GDP to poor sanitation in 2015. As tremendous as the economic losses are, the on-ground, human consequences of poor sanitation are grim - about one in 10 deaths, according to the World Bank.

Poor sanitation contributes to about 10% of the world’s disease burden and is linked to even those diseases that may not present any correlation at first. For example, while lack of nutrition is a direct cause of anaemia, poor sanitation can contribute to the problem by causing intestinal diseases which prevent people from absorbing nutrition from their food. In fact, a study found a correlation between improved sanitation and reduced prevalence of anaemia in 14 Indian states. Diarrhoeal diseases, the most well-known consequence of poor sanitation, are the third largest cause of child mortality in India. They are also linked to undernutrition and stunting in children - 38% of Indian children exhibit stunted growth. Improved sanitation can also help reduce prevalence of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Though not a cause of high mortality rate, NTDs impair physical and cognitive development, contribute to mother and child illness and death and affect overall productivity. NTDs caused by parasitic worms - such as hookworms, whipworms etc. - infect millions every year and spread through open defecation. Improving toilet access and access to clean drinking water can significantly boost disease control programmes for diarrhoea, NTDs and other correlated conditions.

Unfortunately, with about 732 million people who have no access to toilets, India currently accounts for more than half of the world population that defecates in the open. India also accounts for the largest rural population living without access to clean water. Only 16% of India’s rural population is currently served by piped water.

However, there is cause for optimism. In the three years of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the country’s sanitation coverage has risen from 39% to 65% and eight states and Union Territories have been declared open defecation free. But lasting change cannot be ensured by the proliferation of sanitation infrastructure alone. Ensuring the usage of toilets is as important as building them, more so due to the cultural preference for open defecation in rural India.

According to the World Bank, hygiene promotion is essential to realise the potential of infrastructure investments in sanitation. Behavioural intervention is most successful when it targets few behaviours with the most potential for impact. An area of public health where behavioural training has made an impact is WASH - water, sanitation and hygiene - a key issue of UN Sustainable Development Goal 6. Compliance to WASH practices has the potential to reduce illness and death, poverty and improve overall socio-economic development. The UN has even marked observance days for each - World Water Day for water (22 March), World Toilet Day for sanitation (19 November) and Global Handwashing Day for hygiene (15 October).

At its simplest, the benefits of WASH can be availed through three simple habits that safeguard against disease - washing hands before eating, drinking clean water and using a clean toilet. Handwashing and use of toilets are some of the most important behavioural interventions that keep diarrhoeal diseases from spreading, while clean drinking water is essential to prevent water-borne diseases and adverse health effects of toxic contaminants. In India, Hindustan Unilever Limited launched the Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat initiative, a WASH behaviour change programme, to complement the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Through its on-ground behaviour change model, SASB seeks to promote the three basic WASH habits to create long-lasting personal hygiene compliance among the populations it serves.

This touching film made as a part of SASB’s awareness campaign shows how lack of knowledge of basic hygiene practices means children miss out on developmental milestones due to preventable diseases.

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SASB created the Swachhata curriculum, a textbook to encourage adoption of personal hygiene among school going children. It makes use of conceptual learning to teach primary school students about cleanliness, germs and clean habits in an engaging manner. Swachh Basti is an extensive urban outreach programme for sensitising urban slum residents about WASH habits through demos, skits and etc. in partnership with key local stakeholders such as doctors, anganwadi workers and support groups. In Ghatkopar, Mumbai, HUL built the first-of-its-kind Suvidha Centre - an urban water, hygiene and sanitation community centre. It provides toilets, handwashing and shower facilities, safe drinking water and state-of-the-art laundry operations at an affordable cost to about 1,500 residents of the area.

HUL’s factory workers also act as Swachhata Doots, or messengers of change who teach the three habits of WASH in their own villages. This mobile-led rural behaviour change communication model also provides a volunteering opportunity to those who are busy but wish to make a difference. A toolkit especially designed for this purpose helps volunteers approach, explain and teach people in their immediate vicinity - their drivers, cooks, domestic helps etc. - about the three simple habits for better hygiene. This helps cast the net of awareness wider as regular interaction is conducive to habit formation. To learn more about their volunteering programme, click here. To learn more about the Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat initiative, click here.

This article was produced by the Scroll marketing team on behalf of Hindustan Unilever and not by the Scroll editorial team.